1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to social networks, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for displaying relevant information to a user in a social network based on user interaction on the social network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior art mechanisms provide limited mechanisms for discovering new content and users. For example, existing social network applications may attempt to predict potential users that a logged-in user knows and provide a listing of such potential users for the logged-in user to add as “friends”. However, the prior art fails to provide a mechanism that determines a user's interests/affinities based on the user's actions followed by a presentation of both potential users/resources/content and/or a user's computed affinity with such a potential user/resource/content. To better understand the problems of the prior art, a description of prior art terminology may be useful.
Prior art systems provide an overcrowded social network behavior terminology with respect to a user expressing an interest in other users and content. Such terminology includes friending, following, fanning, liking, checking in, +1-ing, etc. Each of these concepts allows a user to uni-directionally indicate an interest in another user/object/content. As an example, a “friend” within the Facebook™ social network is someone that a user may connect and share with within the social network. In other words, to express an interest in another user within the Facebook™ social network, a user may be required to search for and add that user as a “friend”. The added user must then “accept” that user as a friend to establish the “friend” relationship. Once friended, depending on the privacy/security settings established by the users, friends may have access to another friend's activity stream/updates, pictures, personal information, etc.
In addition to “friending,” to express an interest or to provide positive feedback and connect with things a user cares about, the user may “like” a web page, another user's post, etc. For example, if a user desires to indicate an interest in a concert venue, the user must search for and find a social network page corresponding to that venue and “like” that page. Once the user “likes” the page, the user may have access to/view that page's activity stream.
Another term used in the prior art is “follow” which provides a mechanism for a user to see public updates from the people a user is interested in. A user “follows” another user and will receive updates from the followed user in his/her own user's “news feed.” However, confusingly, if a user is interested in keeping up with a Page (e.g., businesses, organizations, bands, etc.), the user utilizes may be required to “like” the page.
“Fanning” is utilized in a similar manner to “liking” a page and refers to a user become a “fan” of their favorite page.
“Checking-in” refers to the concept where a user may “check-in” (e.g., using their mobile device/phone) at different places a user visits (e.g., bars, markets, concert venues, etc.). In other words, the user identifies a location that the user has visited using a “check-in” feature of a social network (e.g., on the Foursquare™ social network).
“+1-ing” refers to a method within the Google+™ social network for how a user shows their appreciation for a post/object. For example, a user may “+1” a post within the Google+™ social network by clicking a “+1” link/icon. Thereafter, the creator of the post and the people the post was shared with can see the user's “+1”. Users can also “+1” something on a website which adds to the total number of “+1”s shown in a count for that item.
What is lacking from each of the above prior techniques is the ability to actually discover new users and content based on accurate and educated recommendations while allowing the user the opportunity to review how/why such new users/content are recommended. Instead, the prior art merely indicates that another user has “liked” such a page or how many mutual friends you have with a particular user. In other words, while prior art systems may recommend another user as a friend, or provide a targeted advertisement, or recommend a web page, all such recommendations are merely based on the present user's activities (e.g., what the user has liked, the user's current profile, etc.) and activities of friends of the present user. Further, such recommendations do not provide the ability for a user to view a detailed basis for such a recommendation.
In view of the above, one may note that a variety of methods are used across different social networks to indicate/express an interest in and to visualize their affinity to other users/objects within a social network. The number of different methods used can be confusing and repetitive and fails to provide a simple and easy to use and understand method/display for expressing an interest and visualizing a user's affinity.